Kazakh President set to win by another landslide

Kazakhstan's long-serving President Nursultan Nazarbayev looked certain to win
another landslide victory as his people cast their ballots on Sunday in an
election which even rival candidates want him to win.

Mr Nazarbayev, who has ruled the oil-rich country since the dying days of the Soviet Union, called the election a year early and at two months' notice, pushing three opposition parties to boycott the poll, complaining of too little time.

As a result, he faced three stalking-horse candidates who publicly support him and his policies.

Polling stations in Astana, the country's showpiece capital, took on a carnival atmosphere, as speakers blared out Kazakh songs and those who turned up to vote were rewarded with presents and discounted food arranged by the city's mayor.

"Everywhere, all over the city, people get presents, because it's the presidential election and its doesn't happen every year," said Kimash Ausebayev, a volunteer at one polling station.

Food blenders, hair dryers, coffee grinders and telephones were handed out to the first ten voters to arrive at each polling station, to voters whose birthday it was, to voters who turned 18 this year, and to voters over seventy.

Nadejda Kim, an ethnic Korean, beamed as the chairman of her local station, handed her an electric coffee grinder. "I'm eighty, and still young," she said. Outside a stall sold cured pork and beef sausages for 500 tenge (£3), brought down from 800 tenge (£5) for the elections.

Mr Nazarbayev arrived to vote near the presidential palace, alongside his eldest daughter, Dariga, and his son-in-law Timur Kulibayev, the billionaire businessman who bought Sunninghill Park from Prince Andrew four years ago.

Even without the inducements on offer, many Kazakhs believe that after more than twenty years in power, Mr Nazarbayev still has more to offer.

"We have to vote for him: it's because of him that we live like this" said Bota Kanybekova, an 18-year-old student. "We live well now, so it's better not to change everything. Maybe in future years, someone will find a drug for him not to die, and he will be our president for my whole life."

Despite a vigorous online campaign, the "Boycott the Vote" campaign mounted by the Communist party and the unregistered Alga party has failed to make much impact on the electorate. Only 150 people turned up for a pre-election protest on Friday, and an online petition for Mr Nazarbayev to retire has so far gained only 584 signatures.

Preliminary results will be announced on Monday morning. By 4pm on Sunday, 76.9 per cent of eligible voters had cast their vote, the country’s election commission reported, exceeding the total voter turnout of 76.8 per cent during the last presidential elections in 2005.